Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Player Starship
The Gunslinger Betty
Starship Feature Book No. 1
by
Edward M Kann
Rocketship Empires 1936
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Rocketship Empires 1936
Welcome aboard The Gunslinger Betty, the noon asking questions of her owners and taking
toughest little transport this side of the corridors. photographs to use as technical references.
The Gunslinger Betty
Many thanks go to the pilot and crew of Old At StoryArt we rmly believe that we are not
Glory, one of the last operational Mitchels ying in in competition with anyone but ourselves in our
the world. It was my pleasure and privilege to visit desire to produce excellent books for our favorite
this amazing aircraft and spend most of an after- settings.
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Rocketship Empires 1936
sour. There are also rumors that Hollywood left
Earth in one of his prototype starghters and ew
Plot Point
The X-41 The very night that Dr. Hollywood vanished
this very starship was sitting partially assembled
In 1934 the United States Rocket Forces on the NASC assembly oor, a few feet outside of
submitted a request to a variety of U.S. manu- Hollywoods ofce.
facturing rms to construct a new Fast Transport
class vessel which could operate successfully in Over the course of the ships history certain
a wide variety of roles, from fast attack bomber to mysterious individuals have made attempts to gain
military transport, to reconnaissance vessel. access to the ship and search it as though they
expected something of value to be hidden inside
In February of that year The North American her.
Space Corporation met the request with a design
for a prototype starship which they designated as What vital piece of information or technolo-
special project X-41. gy might be sealed inside of the Bettys bulkheads
awaiting discovery? What might be the truth be-
The X-41 was the brain child of NASC sci- hind Dr. Hollywoods mysterious disappearance?
entist Reginald Hollywood, a brilliant and some-
times eccentric young engineer credited for three The exact details of this plot point rest in the
of the last ve successful NASC prototype ghter hands of the Game Director.
/ bomber designs since his joining the companys
R&D team in 1929. Only thirty years old in 1935,
A Ship is Born
Professor Hollywood was counted as one of the
youngest scientists working in American astroga-
The starship that would be known as B-25B-
tion as a lead designer.
21-NC USRF s/n 44-30018 North American con-
struction number 108-33923 and later be dubbed
Following successful ight trials during the
the Gunslinger Betty rolled off of the NASC as-
summer of 1934, Professor Hollywood vanished.
sembly lines in Detroit on October 31st, 1934.
His disappearance remains a mystery and NASC
continues to expend resources in an attempt to lo-
The rst US Rocket Forces contract called
cate him. Rumors abound regarding the nature
for fty of the new X-41s, which received the of-
of Hollywoods disappearance. The most popu-
cial eet designation as the B-25 Mitchel. Out of
lar story circulating is that Hollywood became ob-
the rst fty B-25 Mitchels twenty were earmarked
sessed with a young starlet named Rita Angeles
to fulll a desperate need in the United States Ter-
but went into seclusion after the romance turned
ritorial Marshals Service. The Marshals required
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Rocketship Empires 1936
new fast military transports to handle rising border ship impulse drive provide additional thrust from
conicts between the Federal Territories and Con- the tail. The twin engines mounted under the wings
The Gunslinger Betty
federation Privateers. The Bettys rst duty was are designated as the starships primary engines
intended to be that of a Federal privateer and com- while the two engines positioned on the starships
merce raider. tail are designated as the starships secondary
engines. The B25 series was originally built with
The grim reality of the Great Depression the Pratt and Whitney Type B drives as their sole
put the brakes on placing her into service. For ve primary engines but speed performance during
months the entire production order sat in hang- combat trials proved to be disappointing. With an
ers or neglected on the aireld associated with allotment of the engines on hand, North American
the NASC assembly plant in Flint, Michigan. Ulti- Spacecraft made the decision to strip the engines
mately the Federal government was forced to cut and test them as boosters.
their original order signicantly and only ten of the
vessels earmarked for Federal service were pur- The Pratt and Whitney drives on the tail
chased. The remainder languished in hangers for reduce weight and drag to the spacecraft, provid-
another three months before NASC was forced to ing a boost to speed without the same increase in
auction them to private buyers in order to recover weight for installing four Type C drives in a vessel
some portion of their investment in the design. this size. Too late it was discovered that the Pratt
and Whitney drives developed issues in retaining
All branches of the US military, including heat, mounted as they are directly in the back draft
the Rocket Forces have faced major spending of the larger engines. Heat issues with the sec-
cuts in 1934 and 1935. American ship builders ondary engines is covered in detail on page 40.
have sought to survive the economic hard times
by modifying their designs for civilian production The Bettys quad engine, high wing and tri-
as much as possible. Sales of starships while cycle landing gear conguration makes for a crisp
nowhere near booming continue to move forward and clean, aerodynamic conguration during at-
sufciently to keep most of the current names in mospheric ight.
American starship production in business, albeit
with reduced factory personnel and shorter pro- Crew Positions and Weapons
duction runs.
The starship pilot and engineer are seated in
Out of the forty Mitchels sold at auction tandem in a long greenhouse style cockpit similar
nearly half were purchased by foreign concerns to that seen on earlier Martin B-10 spacecraft. The
such as the Kingdom of Holland and British Star navigator is seated in a fully glazed nose which al-
Empire. The remainder were sold to private buy- lows for excellent forward and down observation.
ers, a mixture of explorers, adventurers, mercenar- This forward observation position provides an ex-
ies and those who could benet from a sufciently cellent location for mounting the ships camera de-
fast and heavily armed transport. signed for planetary survey and cartography work
and military reconnaissance.
B-25 Mitchel Starship - Overview
The wide angle of view in the nose is par-
The B-25 Mitchel was constructed with a (at ticularly important since navigation is limited to
the time) new hybrid engine design which sepa- simple directional guidance provided by the mar-
rates the primary impulse star drive and gravity tian navigation computer. The martian system
drive system from the tactical drive. Two Wright will help a ship reach a destination safely but the
Cyclone Hybrid Class C drives are mounted close system has no computerized library or encyclope-
to the fuselage while a pair of stripped down Pratt dia to provide detailed data about destination sys-
and Whitney Type B drives containing only a star- tems. Instead the starship Captain and Naviga-
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Rocketship Empires 1936
solar day and to provide this coverage during long
space voyages a two shift or two team crew is re-
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Rocketship Empires 1936
B-25A) featured a pair of Pratt and Whitney Hybrid als do not attempt to make off with their valuable
Class B engines whose tactical performance was new starship.
The Gunslinger Betty
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Rocketship Empires 1936
surveys and create photographic maps of unex-
plored planetary regions. The K-3L Camera was
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Rocketship Empires 1936
survey equipment. Martian technology has been essentially interested in what can be found in un-
adapted for use by a human planetary survey explored or un-survey star systems off of the major
The Gunslinger Betty
team but the equipment has an equivalent value trade lanes or beyond the edge of explored space.
in trade to most decent starships. Ninety nine out Surveying an already occupied planet, even in a
of one hundred survey teams walk every foot of location not previously explored, brings in consid-
the region of the survey, carrying heavy surveying erably less revenue. Earnings from such projects
equipment and making measurements and taking are generally halved.
both geological and horticultural samples which
will be noted on the teams survey maps. Planetary Surveys and Colonial Claims
Standard survey practices require twelve Since the expansion of the nationalized cor-
sets of geological core samples collected at differ- ridors, resistance to League charters on the oor
ent points around the survey area. Each set should of the League of Nations has waned. Today star
contain at least eight core samples for study. systems somewhat removed from the major trade
routes but still within League controlled space may
Core samples require the use of a motor- turn a tidy prot to those willing to explore them.
ized drill capable of taking a core sample down to
a depth of approximately one hundred feet. A member state of the League of Nations
may claim territory on a newly explored planetary
The Betty does not currently have the nec- body for which member state has obtained docu-
essary drilling tools to gather geological core sam- mented survey information. The survey must be
ples. It remains the only critical piece of equip- submitted and approved by the League of Nations
ment that the vessel lacks for conducting ofcial / council on Earth. Today planetary survey reports
League of Nations approved planetary survey mis- are routinely auctioned to the highest bidder. In
sions. Truth be told previous owners have used some cases the award of the League charter goes
the Betty for other purposes, primarily as an armed to a private or corporate sponsorship rather than
transport for valuable goods and blockade runner. to a government.
The Betty has earned something of a reputation
for itself in certain quarters as a smuggler vessel. Member states are forbidden to place
The new owners may or may not be advised of this claims on, to explore, or travel to star systems
situation. that have been expressly declared to be Martian
restricted zones. The Hegemony claims that Mar-
Flora samples must be collected at twelve tian restricted zones have been established for the
different locations. A standard survey contains at safety of humanity, and should not be tampered
least fty different examples of native ora, cata- with.
logued and preserved for study.
Navigators Computer
A nished planetary survey has a consider-
able monetary value. Starship crews make a reg- The Gunslinger Betty is equipped with a
ular living exploring newly discovered planets. A Nazokt Sept navigation computer. The computer
single survey may earn a team from $2,000.00 up is built into the surface of the navigators plotting
to $10,000.00 (a huge sum by 1936 standards) de- desk. A light table feature and a fold up screen
pending on the survey quality and what is found. allow the Navigator to work with the system which
A single survey covers an area of one hundred has its main components protected inside of an
square kilometers so many, surveys may be con- armored box bolted within the deck beneath the
ducted on a single planetary body before the po- Navigators feet. The brains of the navigation
tential for survey money is exhausted. Private computer can only be reached by unbolting an
buyers (corporations and private individuals) are access hatch marked WARNING Security Area
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Rocketship Empires 1936
Do Not Open set into the deck of the Navigators The navigator plots a course by inputting a
work space. The bio-mechanoid components of series of dened glyphs into the face of the navi-
Updates to the manual should be pur- Unexplored systems may only have basic
chased every six months to insure that the ships planetary locations inputted. Planetary informa-
computer is using the most up-to-date information tion from ancient Hegemony records may be in-
available. complete and many features such as asteroid
belts, comets and small planets or moons may not
The cost for an update to the manual runs be recorded at all. The Navigators ight book has
between $75.00 and $150.00 US and an update instructions for how to record these items into the
necessitates that the entire unit be left with a Mar- navigation computer for download when they re-
tian tech on one of the major colony worlds. Run- turn to an established colony world. The Martians
ning a full update into the system usually requires pay a at reward of $1,000 US for signicant up-
a full eight hour stay for the unit at the shop. dates of data into systems where that information
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Rocketship Empires 1936
was previously missing. positions and all turret gunner positions. The in-
tercom in the navigators section operates either as
The Gunslinger Betty
A star system survey that is fairly complete an open circuit to all locations at once or can be
plus a top notch survey of a previously unexplored toggled to speak person to person with the cock-
habitable planet can earn a survey team more than pit. The Bettys intercom is on a closed hard line
several thousand dollars from an interested party. circuit and can not be jammed by external com-
munications jamming devices. Using the intercom
Emergency Oxygen Reserve does not violate orders to maintain radio silence
as the sound can not be detected outside of the
Beneath the navigators desk is an emer- spacecraft.
gency oxygen reserve tank. This piece of hybrid
technology contains a charge of oxygen that is Navigators Parachute
normally sufcient for one hour. The scrubbers
enclosed in a removable module on the interior of A backpack is stowed just to the left of
the emergency tank can (however) refresh the car- the emergency oxygen reserve beneath the nav-
bon dioxide produced by a user into fresh oxygen igators desk. It contains the navigators escape
for many, hours. With fresh scrubbers this unit can parachute. The Betty is equipped with standard
provide its user with seventy two hours of life sup- human-gear parachutes at the navigator, radar
port when plugged directly into a space suit. In operator, cockpit and all gunner locations. These
the event that a life support suit is not available the chutes are put on by personnel during air combat
unit can be opened up and allowed to recycle the or ak in atmosphere. Should the crewman need
atmosphere enclosed in the navigators compart- to bail out these U.S. manufactured chutes will
ment so long as the compartment remains sealed. open correctly in the vast majority of cases. Fail-
This option reduces the effectiveness of the unit ure to successfully activate a chute or to be thrown
to sixty hours of emergency life support but allows out of the craft without one, indicates that the actor
the navigator to work without being encumbered will likely plummet to their doom. Such is the life
by their space suit. of an aviator in 1936.
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Rocketship Empires 1936
dicated below: The hybrid .50 Cal M-2 has a maximum ef-
fective range of 5,000 ft. and is more or less a mod-
These two layers of protection stack when Should the CXAM targeting link fail (in the
determining the total protection afforded the navi- event of a critical hit that takes out the sensors) the
gator versus a direct hit to his or her compart- gunner must depend on visual targeting. Range
ment. and targeting are greatly impacted when a gunner
is forced to rely on mere eyeballing. During com-
Emergency Pressure Door bat most vessels run dark and they are extremely
difcult to make out in the blackness of space un-
A large yellow button is set into the oor less they are ring their weapons or employing
of the navigation area protected by a metal kick certain types of energy shield.
plate that can be nudged or kicked open by a boot
and the button stomped. The button activates the The .50 Cal has a exible mount but re-
emergency pressure door for the navigator. The mains a forward arc weapon incapable of ring into
pressure door seals the nose off from the rest of the starboard, port or rear arcs of the spacecraft.
the ship in case of the ship takes internal damage. The navigator position is a decent secondary gun-
The navigators door can be over-ridden by the co- ner position for covering the ship during landings
pilots position where a master control for all pres- or while on the ground as the green house pro-
sure doors on the starship is located. vides a wide angle of observation. The belly tur-
ret is perhaps the most effective gun for defending
A pressure alarm on the Betty immediately the ship on the ground with its three hundred and
sounds when the ship experiences a hull breach of sixty degree motorized traverse. The little ball tur-
any size. This alarm is meant to alert crew mem- ret has a limited degree of visibility to the rear and
bers to activate their kick plates and seal their crew might benet from a spotter in the nose to call out
compartments from decompression. A very large targets.
breach might be sufcient to decompress the en-
tire vessel faster than the crew can seal their com- The forward .50 Cal on the Betty retains its
partments. For this reason most ships button up full load of 500 rounds of M2000 Hellion ammo.
individual compartments prior to entering combat An ammo crate contains an additional 500 rounds
or risky areas such as asteroid elds. and is located in a locked position in the underside
of the shelf to the immediate left of the navigators
.50 Caliber Hellion desktop. A second ammo can position is empty
but could receive an additional load of 500 rounds.
The nose mounted .50 Cal. has a bench It is stored in a pop up container at the navigators
seat for the navigator to occupy when using the feet when seated at the weapon.
weapon. The navigators .50 Cal. is linked into
the ships CXAM Sensor System. A green mono- The M2000 ammo is installed on a belt sys-
chrome screen mounted between the weapons tem that has been improved a great deal over ear-
grips provides a fuzzy image of enemy targets out lier feeds. Unlike other belt fed weapons which
to a range of 100 kilometers. Beyond that range require an entire combat action to reload, the .50
and out to a distance of one AU the system shows Caliber M2000 Hellion requires only a half action
targets as glowing blips with corresponding codes to lock and load if the ammo is ready and placed
and numbers which identify each target and reect near the gunner.
relative range to the starship.
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Rocketship Empires 1936
Navigator Skills
The Gunslinger Betty
Navigation
Forward Observer
(Vision or Perception Bonuses)
Alertness
Planetary Survey
Cartography
Photography
Knowledge Skill: Technical - Human Gear
Knowledge Skill: Technical - Hybrid Gear
Knowledge Skill: Astrogation (Planets and Star
Systems)
Repair
Starship Gunnery
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Rocketship Empires 1936
rity. characters stumble upon a secret black market
space station operated by the Qin Shadow Em-
Maybe the ship slips into a natural worm A critical failure will result in the wrong jump
hole and warps to an unexpected destination star point being led into the pilots instruments. They
system. Maybe the ship discovers a rogue aster- will y the vessel into the wrong trajectory and the
oid with an ancient alien ruin on its surface or a ship will jump to one of the other star systems clos-
deposit of valuable looking crystals. Perhaps the est to their current location. If only one star system
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Rocketship Empires 1936
is available as an option the vessel will ultimately
reach its intended destination but at a cost of an
The Gunslinger Betty
Plot Point
Once the course is laid in and the ship is in In addition to the usual gauges and instru-
transit through a star system the navigator is the ments an additional horizon style instrument indi-
vessels forward observer. The navigator can use cates whether the ship is on course during space
the sensor link in the .50 cal. to sweep the area in ight. Course information from the navigators
front of the ship for anything that the ships sensor computer is locked into the pilots instruments by
operator may have missed. the navigator from their station in the nose.
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Rocketship Empires 1936
In most cases a pilot must remain at the helm of Engineers Controls
the ship throughout star system travel. Only after
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Rocketship Empires 1936
Navigators Interior Lamp cockpit was upgraded with a pair of hybrid ejection
All Exterior Running Lights seats. Controls on the far left and right side of the
The Gunslinger Betty
Nose Fog Lights cockpit allow the pilot and co-pilot to activate each
ejection seat independently. A charge overhead
Heaters blows open a roof hatch when the chairs are de-
ployed. Each chair contains its own parachute.
Wing and Flight Surface De-Icers
Cockpit Windscreen De-Icers The system is designed to refuse to deploy
All crew space electric heaters on/off unless both occupants are seated in their ight
seat and secured in their space suits, with the
Powered Motors and Equipment chairs emergency life support hooked in.
*Master Power Cut-Off kills power to every system The cockpit weapons locker contains two
in the ship. Systems often require individual re- Colt 1911 autoloader pistols and a Thompson
starts which may take up to an hour to perform. SMG 1928 naval model. Each weapon is stored
with rounds loaded and two additional clips for
Emergency Life Support each weapon.
The pilot and co-pilot seats each carry an Hull Patch Kit
emergency life support tank in a mount on the
back of their ight seat. A hull patch kit is located in a lunch box
These emergency tanks are identical to the sized kit which can be quickly removed from be-
one found in the navigators compartment. They neath the engineers seat. The patch contains
can provide 72 hours of life support to a subject a palm sized adhesive gun and folded pressure
that is suited up in a space suit and can also be patches that can seal a small hull breach quickly.
cracked open and adjusted to provide atmosphere
sufcient for the sealed cockpit area for sixty hours The adhesive in the gun is formidable and
each. can only be removed with a solvent carried in the
ships mechanics tool kit stowed in the cargo com-
Ejection Seats partment. The adhesive bonds in seconds so an
operator must be careful not to glue themselves to
At the request of the marshals service the the patch, to the hull or to the adhesive gun during
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Rocketship Empires 1936
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Rocketship Empires 1936
the process. Preight
The Gunslinger Betty
The patch kit in the cockpit contains six The ships engineer is busy during star-
patches which can seal a breach in the hull up to ship preight. They must insure that the ship is
the size of a quarter. properly fueled and that all fuel tanks are covered
and secured after fueling. They must check all of
Breach Size Repair Difculty the hydraulic systems on board the ship and run
Pin Hole Simple through a test of every single switch and system
Small (Penny) Moderate they have control over from the cockpit.
Medium (Quarter) Difcult
Large (Silver Dollar) Very Difcult Prior to take-off the engineer is responsible
Catastrophic (Baseball+) Forget It* for doing a nal walk around the ship, checking the
integrity of the landing gear and tires and looking
*Catastrophic hull breaches can only be repaired for any potential problems in the ships structure.
after all of the atmosphere has vented and some- Starships are complex vehicles and have many,
one in a space suit works for several hours at least systems and moving parts. The ships engineer is
to close up the hole. faced with a constant challenge in keeping up with
the wear and repair of these systems.
A replacement kit for the patches has a purchase
price of $50.00 US. A new hull patch kit has a Every time the ship is used, even for short
purchase price of $100.00 US and can be found at hops, there is a cumulative chance (dened on
any star port. the facing page) that a system will begin to expe-
rience mechanical, electrical or other problems.
Engineers Duties This cumulative chance does not go away the mo-
Below is a list of fundamental skills that ev- ment one system experiences a failure. The per-
ery ships engineer should be familiar with to at centage continues to rise until the ship undergoes
least some degree. a period of focused repair and ret known as the
starship overhaul.
Starship Piloting
Craft: Electronic Replacement and repair of ships systems
Craft: Mechanical is time consuming and expensive. Thankfully ship
Craft: Weaponsmith systems do not fall off the moment they begin to
Craft: Engineering show signs of wear.
Knowledge Skill: Technology - Human Gear
Knowledge Skill: Technology - Hybrid Gear Plot Point
Repair
Forward Observer Why all the emphasis on ship wear and tear
Space Suit - EVA and engineering? What science ction show have
you watched where the maintenance and upkeep
In addition a ships engineer may want to of the starship did not gure largely in some shape
possess skills in various vehicles, mechanic, elec- or form over the course of the lm?
trical, chemical, rearms or brawling. The ships
engineer may wish to double up on the planetary When players understand that the ship has
survey skill so that the engineer and navigator can a cumulative rate of wear they will be more inter-
take the lead when the crew is faced with survey ested in earning the money necessary for upkeep.
and exploration missions. A wide variety of sci- Ship pilots and crews will be faced with decisions
ence team skills suit an Engineer well. about putting the ship into space dock for a the re-
pair of a system or forging forward with the adven-
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Rocketship Empires 1936
ture with one or another system in a questionable During the engineers walk around the ship they
state. may or they may not spot the potential problem.
Starship Wear and Tear Table When a piece of equipment is in the red only
a near sighted and somewhat distracted engineer
On the table below I have devised a starship would miss the problem. (Or one that ignored do-
wear and tear table. Any time the Director rolls a ing their regular checks of the ship.)
system problem during pre-ight they should roll to
determine which system faces a potential problem A piece of equipment that becomes FUBAR
and increase the severity on the chart by one level. no longer functions. That is pretty difcult to miss
Starship Wear and Tear Table
Repair Dif-
Roll Skill Equipment Green Yellow Red FUBAR
culty
1 Engineering Port Main Difcult
2 Starboard Main Difcult
Secondary
3 Difcult
Engines
4 Weaponsmith .30 cal. Easy
5 .50 cal. Easy
6 Ball Turret Moderate
7 Ammo Feed Moderate
8 Electrical Radio Unit Moderate
9 Sensors Difcult
10 Cockpit Controls Moderate
11 Lights Easy
12 Barbette Remote V. Difcult
13 Mechanical Landing Gear Moderate
14 Pressure Hatch Easy
15 Wing De-Icers Easy
16 Ball Turret Motor Easy
17 Wing Hydraulics Moderate
18 Tail Hydraulics Moderate
Martian
19 Life Support Xeno Tech
Systems
20 Navigation Xeno Tech
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Rocketship Empires 1936
for anyone who attempts to use the equipment. Yellow Status
The Gunslinger Betty
Equipment repairs are cheaper the ear- The equipment is showing signs of wear.
lier the problem is caught. An item in the green Replacement parts for worn parts may vary wide-
might be reset completely with a successful repair ly depending on the equipment in question. We
check. An item in the yellow might be set back one leave the specic details of the malfunction in the
step to green. I usually allow an engineer to push capable of hands of the GM.
back the advance of wear one step for one piece
of equipment. After that the equipment will con- If left damaged the system will continue to
tinue to progress as a problem when it is rolled on function and has a 05% chance of suffering a mal-
the chart until it either goes FUBAR or the entire function during ight.
ship goes into overhaul and all of the equipment is
reset to starting levels. Red Status
Starship manufacturing can have a major The equipment is showing signs of seri-
impact on the severity of equipment problems with ous wear and the engineer may have had prob-
a particular type of starship. A manufacture with lems with it already to some degree. Repair costs
a poor rating in engines will automatically begin increase. If left damaged the system has a 10%
the wear and tear table with one slot notched off chance of suffering a malfunction during ight.
against them (in the green). Manufacturers that
construct components or systems with wretched FUBAR
quality ratings face an automatic two strike start-
ing point for the systems that receive the wretched The equipment is FUBAR. It is broken and
quality rating (start in the yellow). no amount of repair is going to x it. Time to buy a
new one Captain.
To repair or not to repair...
Repair Difculty
Engineers can usually repair a ships sys-
tem one step as long as they have the tools, the This is a measure of the difculty for repair-
time, and the problem is in the human or hybrid ing a piece of equipment once it has reached YEL-
components. LOW status. As damage progresses the difculty
for making the repair should rise. Keep in mind
Performing an overhaul does not reset the that repairing a broken piece of equipment is hard-
cumulative chance of the erosion of ships sys- er than tearing the unit out and replacing it with a
tems. Thus a ship can accumulate a ten, twenty, new one. A straight replacement of a unit should
forty, eighty percent chance of a system advanc- have a moderate difculty in most cases.
ing in wear and tear over time each time the ship
goes into the air.
Ship Status Report
Table Key The ships engineer can submit a status re-
port immediately prior to embarking on a voyage
Green Status or upon arrival the starship Captain.
The equipment is in top shape. Unless it is It takes 5 minutes to properly check one
damaged in combat or through some accident it broad class of equipment on the ship (all electrical
will not malfunction during ight. systems for example) and around thirty minutes to
perform a proper inspection of the entire ship.
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Rocketship Empires 1936
The wear and tear chart can be copied and A yellow light comes on.
turned into a tracking form for monitoring the cur- Twenty minutes later a red light
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Rocketship Empires 1936
form the repair.
The Gunslinger Betty
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Rocketship Empires 1936
device work. These devices are designed to be characters will add to the cost.
modular so damaged pieces can be easily re-
Starghters 24 Hours Medium Much of this has been glossed over in pre-
Fast Transports 48 Hours Medium vious works but I would like to include them here.
Atmo-Capable 72 Hours Difcult Not because every director will want to use these
Light Class 1 Week Difcult ideas in every scenario but so game directors
Medium Class 2 Weeks V. Difcult have these materials to add to their tool box for
Heavy Class 1 Month V. Difcult bringing non-combat actions aboard a starship to
life.
Time requirements listed here are for a
team of three technicians. Additional technicians
will shave ve hours off the time required for each
additional tech. Adding techs. that are not player
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Rocketship Empires 1936
Preight Atmospheric Take Off
The Gunslinger Betty
Prior to take off the captain works with the Spaceport / Colony Size Inbound
engineer to run through the ships preight check
list. He tests all of the control surfaces, runs the Very Small / Outpost 01%
engines and fuel pumps through a test, personally Small 03%
tests the fuel levels manually to insure that false Medium 05%
readings on gauges dont place him in space with Large 08%
a half a load of fuel and contacts the radio tower to Enormous 10%
get in line for take-off. It is up to the GM to dene where the star
port or colony falls in the ranges listed above.
All of this activity means that the pilot is very
busy during preight and will not want to be both- When taking off from remote locations
ered with problems that the rest of the crew should (away from runways and spaceports) and after
sort out for themselves. At least until the ship is take-off from standard spaceports the pilot will
safely underway. want to climb their ship to a safe altitude for ight.
A safe altitude is considered one where the pilot
has time to recover the starship in the event of an
Taking Off engine failure or other problem.
Pilots will face two different scenarios when
embarking. In the rst and most common scenario Safe Operational Altitudes
the pilot will be taking off from a planetary surface.
In the second the pilot will be launching into space A good operational ight altitude to reach
out of a conned docking platform at an orbital or is 3,000 feet. Below 3,000 feet and down to 1,000
deep space station. feet the pilot suffers a negative modier to their pi-
loting roll to pull out of a spin or stall should the
ship encounter problems. Starships and starght-
ers operating below 1,000 feet suffer a -2 penalty
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Rocketship Empires 1936
and ships operating below 500 feet suffer a -4 pen- may not take extra time to gain a bonus to their
alty. skill roll.
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The Gunslinger Betty Rocketship Empires 1936
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Rocketship Empires 1936
ying) will start to get worried. Crew members and lucky and may immediately return to land at your
passengers attempting to move around the ship point of origin. Otherwise you must make a roll to
The Gunslinger Betty
will face a check any time they attempt to move spot an open eld or other suitable location where
around to keep on their feet. Light objects unse- you might be able to set down your craft. If you fail
cured about the craft may jostle and fall. to spot a eld or other suitable spot you may be in
for a very unpleasant crash.
Heavy Turbulence
Crash
The ship is pitching and yawing like a ship
on the high sea. Pilot and crew members will likely Flying in severe weather has its risks. You
want to keep themselves strapped into their seats. are going down. Whether a wind sheer has torn
Unsecured cargo in crew areas or the cargo hold off one of your wings or tail, a stroke of lightning
may become dislodged. Crew members who at- has just blown off one of your engines and most of
tempt to move around face a more challenging your wing or you have set her into a at spin, you
roll any time they attempt to move to keep on their are done for. No amount of fancy tricks is going to
feet. recover your bird now. Choose whether you are
going to give the order to bail out and hit the eject
Failing the roll forces the passenger or crew button or whether you are going to ride her down
member to take a point of damage from falling or into the dirt. Youve lost control of the ship and
being battered around. (Theres that light damage there is no recovering her. Good luck to you mate,
class for you.) she was a good ship and god save you and your
valiant crew.
Off Course
Atmospheric Flight
Poor visibility has you off course. Even us-
ing your instruments you are a little confused and During atmospheric ight make a roll on
ying in the wrong direction. Roll a spot roll every the piloting table once every 1d4 hours. Starships
ve minutes to nd your way back on course, or must use tactical ight any time they are ying in
climb up out of the fog, rain or bad weather. In very the atmosphere. Attempting to use system drives
poor conditions you may be forced to rise out of while ying in an atmosphere is a bad idea. It will
atmo completely and stage yourself in orbit until result in an immediate and massive build up of fric-
conditions clear. tion, heat and structural stress which will tear the
ship into teeny, tiny pieces and scatter the remains
Lost over many, miles.
You are lost. Not only do you not know All starships have a fail safe system that in-
which direction you are headed you are not sure sures that the system drive can not engage any
whether your are climbing or descending. Make time an atmosphere is detected around the gravity
an immediate piloting roll and if you fail badly you drive.
may wind up crashing the ship into a hill, build-
ing, mountain, radio tower or some other tall ob- Flying into and out of conned spaces
stacle. If you succeed you may climb out of the
bad weather or fog. So you want to pilot your starship into the
ice caverns of that asteroid and weave your way
Forced to Land through the tunnels in order to shake those snub
ghters. Well yboy, such things are possible but
You are forced to land the ship immediate- should not be attempted by rookie pilots or those
ly. If you just took off or were landing then you are with weak hearts.
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Course changes when ying at impulse
The real trick to ying in and out of conned speeds are very gradual. Even if you throw the
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make a difcult piloting roll. Failure on this roll in- star, or in some cases a super gas giant or gas gi-
dicates that the pilot has punched out early or late. ant to slingshot a starship into an alternate space-
The Gunslinger Betty
Roll two different colored d10. One die is posi- time state known as jump space.
tive result and the other is negative. Compare the
difference between the two rolls and that is how The ships navigational computer will plot a
many seconds the pilot punched out early or late. course for the pilot to follow that provides the cor-
If the rolls are equal the pilot has punched out on rect trajectory for the starship to follow during the
time but more through sheer luck than skill. star dive. A count down allows the co-pilot or engi-
neer to activate the starships gravity drive system
Merciful GMs that we are, a late punch out at the optimum moment to effect a jump.
merely indicates that the pilot has missed their
destination and does not require that the pilot roll During a star dive the pilot lowers a series
to avoid burying the nose of their starship into the of armored blast plates that cover the green house
side of the space station they were intent to hot nose and all of the exposed glass-steel surfaces
burn near. of the vessel so crew are not exposed to the direct
glare of the star.
Example:
Blast coverings are lowered approximately
Starghter Pilot Valerie performs a hot burn 24 hours prior to the starship making jump while
in her Hurricane Starghter. The target distance the starship remains reasonably distant from the
she wants to punch out at is 1,000 kilometers. At star. Flying a starship blind, using the instruments
that distance and ying at her starghters top tac- to guide you while the starship experiences rising
tical speed of Mach 2, she will be upon her target internal temperatures despite the best efforts of
in just under 24 minutes. If she punches out a sec- the ships life support system can be a bit hair rais-
ond late or early she will still be in good shape at ing. All pilots y their ship by instrument through-
that distance. out a star dive.
Unfortunately Valerie blows her roll, punching out During a star dive Starships have been
perfectly is a difcult maneuver after all. She rolls
known (rarely) to have their gravity drive fail. This
1d10 for early and 1d10 for late times and rolls a occasional disaster results in stories of doomed
ve for her early time and a two for her late time. ships with ailed drives aming out into the heart of
The difference between the two rolls places her a star. Thankfully these occurrences are rare but
punching out three seconds early. swapping stories about the Flying Dutchman or
Boyd Rukkermans doomed Lucky Gambler helps
Valeries actual distance punching out is to pass the time, particularly when rookie crew
1,700 kilometers X 3 + 1,000 kilometers (her target members come aboard.
distance) or 6,100 kilometers out from her target.
Performing a star dive in the Gunslinger
At top speed Valeries starghter will take Betty requires the pilot to make an easy piloting
well over three and a half hours to reach her tar- maneuver. A failure indicates that the starship is
get. slipping off course and although the jump will go
through the starship may appear almost anywhere
Jump Space Travel in the target star system rather than at the usual
re-entry point approximately one quarter AU from
the target star. Roll 1d10 for the number of AUs
Star Diving distant the re-entry occurs from the target star.
Martian gravity drive technology relies upon A critical failure indicates a threat of a jump
the presence of a massive gravity body, such as a
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Rocketship Empires 1936
system failure. The engineer must make a moder- need to share hammocks but can rearrange things
ate starship engineering roll amidst a great clamor depending upon who is on-duty during a ight and
The Gunslinger Betty
Alternatively a Director can opt to have Real shore leave is a high point for any star-
the vessel appear in a distant part of unexplored ship crew. Crew mates want a break.
space with just enough information in their naviga- Every crewman has their own full sized
tion books to plot a course from system to system locker for stowing personal items and a second
back towards home but no other information what- temperature controlled mini locker overhead where
soever. The players may encounter all manner of perishables can be stored between ights. An ad-
adventures during their attempt to bring their ship ditional locker for each crewman is located in the
back to colonized space. radio room. This brings the total personal locker
space to two large and two small lockers for every
Cargo Hold and Crew Staterooms crewman on board the ship.
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Smuggling vers including take-off and landings.
The Gunslinger Betty
Cargo Capacity and Trim Beyond the cargo holds pressure door is
the ships head. The toilet can be modied to be
The cargo hold has a posted maximum ca- used in zero gravity should articial gravity fail.
pacity of 25 tons. The Betty begins handling a little The ships articial gravity generator allows the
heavy in the stick starting around 15 tons. head to be used in the usual manner during nor-
mal ight operations.
Starting at 15 tons and for every 5 tons of
additional cargo The Betty loses 500 feet of tacti- The ships central life support unit and pri-
cal movement and suffers a 1 to initiative bonus in mary gyroscope are both located in the radar com-
combat. partment. The radar / radiomans seat is designed
to slide back and forth between all of the controls
Flying over the cargo limit for the ships sensors and the main panel for the
life support system.
It is possible to y The Betty over her post-
ed load limit but she becomes extremely lubberly Recycling Unit
and slow. For every ton over her posted maximum
cargo weight add a penalty to all piloting maneu- A simple but extremely valuable hybrid piece
of technology is enclosed in the deck below the
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ships head. This recycling bio-mechanoid device The lockers are set up with sufcient locker
not only eliminates waste products, it shunts the space to provide six crew members with one three
The Gunslinger Betty
products through a series of lters that allows the foot tall by one foot wide by two feet deep, medium
water to be reused. Waste products are shunted locker and a smaller two feet tall, one foot wide
into the engines fuel processors which can break and two foot deep locker space.
down any carbon based material into fuel for the
engines. The fuel produced by recycling ships The smaller security locker is equipped
waste is negligible and is only mentioned here be- with a fairly advanced locking system keyed to the
cause waste products are burned up rather than crew members personal identication card or plas-
stored for removal later. tic key card. Personal identication cards are con-
structed from a thick layer of Bakelite. The secu-
The Betty contains a sink with a medicine rity locker can be sealed and temperature controls
cabinet that is shared by the entire crew. Captain allow items stored there to be cooled. The small
and crew must use the sink to wash up the best locker will not actually freeze items stowed here
that they can during ight ops. The Betty does not but it can be set up to function as a small personal
contain the luxury of a shower stall which is typical cooler for beers, supplies or personal items that
for Fast Transport class vessels. are of a perishable nature.
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The current cutting edge sensor installed by North or co-pilot. The Radar Ops ofcer doubles as a
American Space Co. is the Type 11. communications operator and can make ne tun-
The Gunslinger Betty
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Rocketship Empires 1936
The Wright Cyclone
The two red dials on the top left of the sys- Class C - Gravity Drive
The passive capabilities of the CXAM are Many of the its parts are made from martian
primitive at best. They do not function effectively materials which have been formed into structures
when the sensor is operating in active mode. Any that mirror familiar human technology. Most me-
attempts by the operator to use the CXAM in its chanics feel comfortable working with the technol-
passive capacity faces at the minimum a Difcult ogy in these engines with the exception of the core
skill attempt. components which are far too sophisticated and
alien to approach without very specialized train-
The red dial on the bottom of the CXAM in- ing.
dicates the presence of a standard hybrid sensor
in operation. The CXAM has sufcient capabilities The upper structure of the engine is the
to detect active sensors at a range of up to .10 engines jump drive super charger. The super
AU. charger is necessary for the FahZol Gravity Drive
engine nacelle below to make the transition from
Human radar systems are easier to detect. maximum system speeds to jump space.
The CXAM can detect a human gear radar system
in operation at a range of .10 AU with a bonus (+4) The stripped Pratt and Whitney Type-B
to detect and identify the target. drives mounted on the tail have their super char-
gers and related components removed. The re-
Sensor Masking and Sensor Burn moval of the super chargers and some of the relat-
ed internal components greatly reduces the weight
The Radar Operator can sacrice a point of these engines, although now they function only
from their chance to detect a target object in order as impulse drives.
to make their own system more difcult to detect.
Engineers at North American Space Co.
The Radar Operator may sacrice up to ve have installed an engine cowling which allows the
points at a single time in order to mask the op- pilot to vent heat from each of the four engines
eration of their sensor system but will face greater more effectively during atmospheric ight. This
and greater difculties in using the system suc- feature was added late in production after combat
cessfully. trials demonstrated heat problems in the Pratt and
Whitney engines when operating at full capacity.
Conversely the operator may gain a +1 bo- The introduction of the modied engine cowling
nus to their sensor scans by burning some bat- was an attempt to solve this design aw but it has
tery power to boost their signal. Up to a +3 can met with only moderate success.
be gained but enemy units gain a +2 to detect the
system for every +1 the operator gives himself Many pilots run this model of starships sec-
during the sensor burn. Every full combat round ondary engines at half throttle to take a measure
the sensors are operated in this articially boosted of the work load off of the primary engines dur-
fashion the operator drains a full hour of battery ing ight but otherwise avoid pushing the engines
time out of the sensors reserve battery supply. hard due to concerns about overheating or over-
taxing them.
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Rocketship Empires 1936
Pratt and Whitney Engines and Heat which protects both the gunner when climbing
down into the ball from accidently traversing the
The Gunslinger Betty
If the Betty is caught in a situation where turret and nearby ships or structures from an acci-
her secondary engines must be pushed (the star- dental discharge of the weapons while the gunner
ship is made to travel at maximum tactical speed is climbing in and out of this extremely tight spot.
for ve combat rounds consecutively) the engineer
must make a moderate engineering roll to keep A gunner tted with a parachute requires
the secondary engines from overheating. Each one full combat round to squeeze down into the
additional combat round that the engines maintain turret and into position. A second combat round
full tactical speed the engineer faces an increased is required to secure the locking bolts into place
difculty to the target roll. so that the ball turret becomes active. A gunner
without a chute can drop down into the turret with
If the engineer fails in their roll then one of more speed (half a combat round) but the hatch
the engines (roll randomly) will begin to red line still requires the same amount of time to secure.
and smoke. If speed is not reduced from full in 1d4
combat rounds then the engine will burn out and Communications within the belly turret is
fail. maintained through the ships intercom system.
The gunner does not have control over their inter-
A burned out engine will result in the Bet- com other than to toggle it on or off.
ty losing movement off of her maximum tactical
speed. Continued pushing of the remaining sec- The schematic shows one of the turrets .50
ondary may result in the second engine failing. caliber Hellions removed from its bracket. When
Thankfully in the Betty this does not result in the the gun is installed in the turret the feed cover on
starship suffering any other hardship than a loss the top of the gun, receiver and frizzen are located
of speed but this may produce a serious hazard inside of the turret. The gunner has full access to
for a vessel attempting an escape from prolonged the gun to drop a new magazine into it for reload-
combat. ing. The ball turret is not large enough to contain
more than one reserve 500 round belt. The gun-
The Ball Turret ner must call to another crewman during combat,
have their turret hatch unbolted and have the new
The ball turret gunner gains entry to this po- belt passed into the turret to reload should they
sition through a hatch that can be secured with its run out. This event is unlikely. It is far more likely
own atmosphere tight seal. The turret spins using that the Betty will be destroyed if a combat lasts so
an electric traverse motor operated by the gunner long that the belly gun runs completely out of both
from their seat inside the ball. A gyroscope in- its standard and reserve belt.
stalled next to the turrets oxygen tank works with
the controls and motor to swing the gun and turret Reloading in the ball turret is such a
into position in response to the gunners controls. cramped and slow process (3 Full Combat Rounds
with help!) that most experienced gunners will
The belly turret relies on the radar operator conserve their ammunition and avoid running their
or one of the other gunners to secure them into guns dry early in a combat.
their position. The turret door must be bolted into
position by fastening a series of locking bolts that A secondary access hatch is located in the
can only be latched or unlatched from within the underside of the ball turret. This escape hatch is
spacecraft. The interior hatch from the ship into constructed as the back of the seat that holds the
the ball turret must be locked in the closed posi- gunner curled into position. An emergency re-
tion before the guns will come on line or the mo- lease button protected by a metal plate is located
tor will traverse the turret. This is a safety feature over the gunners head. Smacking the plate to the
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Rocketship Empires 1936
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Rocketship Empires 1936
side arms the emergency release. Punching the the 20s an engineer or gunner must access the
red emergency release button cycles a light from feed belt and feed covers from the exterior, under-
The Gunslinger Betty
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Rocketship Empires 1936
an open eld risks damage to the landing gear (Glass Steel)
tires or to the struts themselves. 1 Slot Dual Seat Ejection
The Gunslinger Betty
This is Edward
...signing off.
45
Coming in February
2008
Coming Soon!